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Virtually Magical!
- by Joshua Olive

Sometimes
you're dying to go to the Magic Kingdom and it's just not feasible for
whatever reason: the money isn't there, the time isn't there, or the kids
aren't old enough to really get the most out of the park yet. Never fear!
Now you can enjoy the delights of the Magic Kingdom at home!

Disney has
recently brought us the Virtual Magic Kingdom and, even though it's only
in the Beta test phase right now, it's still a lot of fun. If you're itching
for a little Disney magic, all you need is a computer and an internet
connection to find it!

You start
off by creating your character, and you can have a lot of fun with that.
You control your character's gender, skin color (including a very interesting
shade of green, for those who have always wanted to be Martian!), hair
color and style, facial hair, clothing types, shoes, the whole nine yards.

After you've
put your character together, you can start zipping through the Magic Kingdom.
Now, if you're expecting the exact layout to mirror any particular kingdom
from the parks around the world, don't be disappointed when things don't
look the way you're expecting them to. This Magic Kingdom is really an
amalgam of all the Magic Kingdoms around the world. The castle, for instance,
is from Disneyland: Paris. The graphics in this game are cartoonish, but
they're fun, and they somehow managed to capture the spirit of the ambience
at the actual parks, which was wonderful surprise.

So what do
you do when you're strolling through the park? I don't know why, but I
expected to be able to ride virtual versions of the actual theme park
rides or something like that. I was wrong, but I'm not disappointed, despite
that. While you can't virtual rides, there are a lot of fun things you
can do.

One of the
primary draws is the games you can play. You can wage a battle with other
players as one of the Pirates of the Caribbean; you can go on a Jungle
Cruise photo safari; you can create your own music mix on Main Street,
and you can try your hand at setting off the fireworks show at the castle.
Each of these games is fun to play, and they're great for just about any
age (though the pirate game can be a little difficult to work out for
younger players).

One of the
other fascinating options in the game is to capture Hidden Mickeys on
film! You can buy a camera and film on Main Street with the credits you've
earned, then zip through all the different areas of the parks, shooting
pictures of Hidden Mickeys. This is a challenge, as some of them are extremely
difficult to spot, but most of the other players in the game are glad
to help you out if you have questions. And, in all, it's just fun to scour
through the parks, looking for places where the virtual Imagineers have
hidden that iconic mouse silhouette.

So what's
the point of all this? You get credits for your character for winning
games, for just participating in some games, for finding Hidden Mickeys,
for discovering characters within the game (the Yeti at the Matterhorn,
for example), and for making and playing your own music mixes at the Main
Street dance party. With the credits you earn, you can decorate your room
(you get to choose what kind of room you want at the beginning of the
game, and the rooms are very cool - mine is in the Nautilus); you can
buy pins to wear and/or trade; you can buy posters to put in your virtual
room; or you can buy new clothes for your character to wear.

Also, in
the near future, you will be able to win prizes that you can use in the
actual parks - Fastpasses, pins, and the like - and that's a pretty good
reason to play the game right there. Just for fun, they're also opening
a kiosk in the WDW Magic Kingdom where you can play the game online or
complete physical quests in the Magic Kingdom (scavenger hunts and that
sort of thing) to win prizes for your online character.

It's a lot
of fun and, for friends or families who live miles apart and can't actually
go to the parks together, it's a great way to meet up and enjoy some Disney
magic. It's also a great way to meet other people who are just as crazy
about Disney as you are. Who else will be playing this game but Disney
aficionados?!

So what's
the downside? At the moment, only Adventureland is open and fully functional
- they are in the Beta Test mode, after all - and Fantasyland is partially
functional. Tomorrowland and Frontierland will be up and running very
soon, and they'll have all kinds of other games to play, but they're not
up yet, so you can run out of new things to do fairly soon. The Hidden
Mickey search will keep you coming back though; so watch out! It's a little
addictive.

The other
negative about the game is the Disney dictionary. In order to keep anyone
from talking inappropriately online or using inappropriate words, Disney
has a dictionary of words that are acceptable to them and if a word is
not in that dictionary, you can't use it. Normally not a problem - but
their dictionary is so limited, you can't even use words that they use
on the site! For example, you can't say the word "one" when
talking to other players; you've got to get around it by saying "won."
No "won" is quite sure what is offensive about the word "one,"
but it must be a humdinger. You can't name your character's room "Tropical
Hideaway," because it doesn't recognize the word "hideaway,"
even though it's in the chorus of the Tiki Room song. Sometimes, you can't
use any punctuation. All of this makes communicating with other players
very difficult sometimes. And God help you if your spelling skills aren't
up to snuff!

That said,
they are hard at work improving the game. It is still in testing mode
and the complete version hasn't been released yet. And, best of all, it's
FREE!! It's hard to justify complaining when it doesn't cost you anything
to play.

If you'd
like to spend more time in the Magic Kingdom, but you don't have the money,
live too far away, or you just can't get away from work, you can still
log in to the Virtual Magic Kingdom and, for free, enjoy a healthy dose
of Disney magic! It's a great way to unwind after a long day.

If anyone
sees me in the Virtual Magic Kingdom, feel free to say hello - being the
Animal Kingdom fan that I am, I go by the name Anandapur! Everest was
already taken. Humph. ;-)